Chapter 20: Awake and Alive

I wasn't really sure what to make of what I'd just been told. Rather, it was what I had figured out on my own that left me speechless, with a little help from Cheza's soothing voice and a pair of piercing blue eyes.

Snow – Blue – kept talking, rambling on and on about her ordeal with Cheza turning her human as if nothing had changed, while in reality, everything had changed.

She wasn't who she thought she was, who I thought she was. All this time, my cat had been the reincarnation of a wolf I'd known a long time ago. It didn't make sense to me, much like a lot of things I'd been forced to acknowledge lately, but for some odd reason, this was by far the hardest news to swallow.

Hige was motionless behind Blue, now in his human form as Cheza said something to him in a soft voice, though her eyes were trained intently on my face. I, however, was paying them no mind.

"I don't know what's going on." Blue whispered, eyes flickering to and fro like she was afraid to look at me too directly. "Cheza picked me up and kissed my nose and… it hurt so much, Toboe, I didn't know what was going on!"

I said nothing. After all, what could I say? It was obvious she wasn't handling the "being a different species" thing very well. What would she do if she knew she was really a wolf underneath her human skin or her white feline disguise?

And even if I wanted to comfort her, I didn't know how. In this odd, twisted version of reality, I was now an animal while she was human. Nothing about our situation was familiar and comforting, and I wanted no part of it. I'd already given up so much to do this, both for the world and for myself, but Snow hadn't been something I was willing to relinquish my hold on.

I supposed she was still with me, but the only thing familiar about the trembling girl before me were her eyes. But even they looked unfamiliar, tainted with fear and uncertainty, something I'd never seen in Snow's eyes before. She'd always been the calm face in the wake of my worries, a solid thing to grasp on to.

Now she was just as frazzled as I was, a stranger to a body she didn't know how to control. She'd run over here easily enough, but I'd seen the uncertainty in her movements, the shaking in her long legs as she struggled to stand on two instead of four. Her transformation was different from mine, yet the same in all the important ways.

"Tell her to change me back." Blue begged me, hands tightening in the fur around my neck as she fought the urge to throw her arms around me once more. She sensed something was off about me. She knew me well enough to tell when something was wrong. "She wouldn't listen to me when I tried."

Still, I said nothing. The blue-eyed girl in front of me looked to be on the verge of a breakdown, the darkened orbs misting over slightly as tears threatened to fall down her face. I wondered how she was processing it. She'd never experienced how it had felt to cry before, although she had seen me in the act hundreds of times in the past year or so.

My next actions weren't really my own, yet I had no qualms with them whatsoever. I had no strength to keep fighting, still in an exhausted haze from all the energy I'd wasted just today from hunting earlier in the day, running from Sasha, and ultimately getting shot and nearly killed.

When I reached up with my hand, it was really a hand once more, five long bones covered in pale skin that I hadn't even known had returned. Blue looked startled as well, not expecting my sudden shift from wolf to boy, glassy eyes fixed warily on my hand as it moved closer to her face slowly.

My fingers threaded themselves through her bangs, pushing them off her forehead so I could get a better look at her eyes. She closed them, however, leaning forward into my palm and clutching at my wrist with small, warm hands, a small noise escaping the back of her throat. The sound pulled at my heart, and even if this girl wasn't the white cat I'd once called my best friend, I couldn't stand the sorrow she was displaying.

"You'll be okay." I said, and my voice cracked on the last word, though I had no urge to blame it on puberty that time.

Blue's face contorted, her grip on my wrist tightening before she opened her eyes once more, fixing me with a penetrating gaze that belonged solely to Snow. And I relaxed, because my friend was still in there somewhere. She knew nothing of her past life, at least not yet.

"Cheza, what's going on?" Hige's voice infiltrated my thoughts, and I pulled my hand away from Blue gently, not wanting to hurt her anymore than her transformation already had. Her eyes hardened slightly as her hair fell back into place in front of her eyes, and while she let me retract my hand, she refused to release her hold on me. "How did you – Did you know she was Blue all along?"

"My name is Snow, you moron." Blue snapped, turning to glare at him over her shoulder.

I tugged my arm back slightly, not to get her to let go but to tell her to stop before she did irreversible damage. She had no idea the power she held over the wolf she was snapping at. I couldn't help but wonder why Cheza hadn't sent Blue to Paradise to get her memories back as well. It would've saved Hige a lot of heartache. It would've also saved me the pain of spending more time with Snow only to have her ripped away from me once again.

"This One knew." Cheza confirmed Hige's suspicions. "You heard This One's voice on the day you met Toboe, did you not?"

It took Blue a moment to realize Cheza was now speaking to her. "You mean… that was you? But I – " She broke off, a deep frown pulling at her lips. How far back could she remember? She had been fairly young when I'd found her. "No wonder your voice sounded so familiar when I first saw you at the hotel. "

Cheza nodded, looking quite pleased with herself. I shared a glance with Hige, and I could see how deeply distressed he was by this entire thing. I was, too, but not for the same reasons as him, I assumed.

It was then that I heard movement from behind me, and Blue tensed, teeth bearing as she released a lethal hiss that died away when she realized who it was that had shown up.

"Hige, Toboe, why did you run off like tha – " Tsume demanded, but fell silent when he noticed the extra human in the clearing. "Who's that?"

Kiba didn't look as surprised as Tsume did, and just from his posture alone, I knew that Kiba recognized the girl that was keeping a death-grip on my arm. "Blue?" He asked slowly.

"Snow." She replied fiercely, eyes narrowing to dangerous slits.

I threw them a helpless look that only Tsume saw, because Kiba was otherwise preoccupied with Hige. He was trying to determine his state of mind just like I was. But so far, Hige hadn't done anything aside from asking the occasional question.

"She was reborn as a cat?" Tsume asked incredulously, dropping the bag Quent gave him at his feet. They'd followed us up here instead of going to find our new van first. "Is that even possible?"

"It's not heard of." Kiba said, face carefully guarded as he moved his attention back to Blue, satisfied enough with Hige's current state to look elsewhere. "But anything's possible, I guess. We'll have to contact Dante to ask."

"Joy." Hige muttered. "Because we all know how helpful he is."

"He did give us a new car." I said, no longer looking at Blue, because I didn't know what to say to her. My shoulder was starting to throb, and I wasn't really in the right mind to deal with any of this right now. "That has to count for something, right?"

"I suppose." Kiba said, shifting his gaze to me. "Here, Toboe, Quent left this in his bag." He leaned down to dig through the bag Tsume had dropped, pulling out a blue material that I recognized as an arm sling. "He said to wear it when you're human."

"Do I have to?" I sighed as Kiba approached to help me put it on. "It's just my shoulder that's hurt, not my entire arm."

"You want it to get better, don't you?" Blue asked, watching Kiba warily as he helped me maneuver my arm into the inconvenient sling. I refused to acknowledge that I recognized that look. I'd seen it on Snow plenty of times.

"I guess." I mumbled as Kiba stepped away, pleased with his work. My arm felt more uncomfortable than before, if that was even possible.

"Well, now that that's settled – " Kiba began, but Blue interrupted him.

"Hold up." She snapped, releasing my hand and getting to her feet, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared up at the blue-eyed wolf. "I want to be turned back now. I don't know why Cheza made me human, but I don't like it."

Kiba held her gaze evenly. "I understand that it's a huge transition for you."

Blue snorted, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, no kidding. Now how do I get back to normal?"

"You can not 'get back to normal'." Cheza answered for Kiba. "At least not for a while. You have to be in tune with yourself."

"What does that mean? I am in tune with myself."

"Snow, you know how Toboe is really a wolf?" Kiba asked, and she nodded. "Well, to put it simply, so are you. We were all born in a world very different from this one. We all knew each other before, and we tried to save the world from dying, so to speak. We succeeded, and we all died in the process, but we were reborn for a new purpose. You're our friend Blue, but for some reason, you were born as a cat in this life."

I stifled a snort, because that was an extremely watered-down version of the entire story. When they'd told me, it took a good portion of the night to explain everything. But unlike with Blue, they'd told me about my past before Cheza had transformed me. Blue went in blind, and all I felt at this point was an exhausted sympathy.

Blue stared at Kiba hard, her body unmoving. "Is this some kind of sick joke?" She asked dryly, and jerking her thumb back at Hige, she added, "Did the jokester back there put you up to this?"

Hige opened his mouth to protest, maybe, but Blue held up a hand, stopping him. "Don't say a word." She growled. "You're lucky I haven't slapped you yet. I still haven't forgotten when you threw me in the dumpster when I first met you. The scent clung to my fur for days."

I spared a curious glance at Hige to see his reaction. I remembered how I'd found Snow in the dumpster outside their apartment when she'd chased Hige through the city. He looked kind of sheepish when he met my gaze, but at least he was feeling okay enough to be anything but sad.

"Look," Kiba said with a small sigh, and I realized then how exhausted they all must have been. "I know it's hard to accept, but it's the truth. Just think it over, and we'll talk again in the morning. For now, let's get some sleep while we can. We have to get up in three or four hours so we can leave the city undetected."

Blue didn't protest, though I could see how upset and riled she still was. I wanted to say something, anything, to make her feel better, but I was barely able to keep my eyes open. Anything I could've said probably wouldn't help while I was this tired.

I fell down onto my back with a groan, throwing my uninjured arm over my eyes, maybe in some kind of attempt to block out the reality of the situation. I didn't want to think that the pretty girl standing above me was my pet.

I heard everyone settle down to sleep around me, and I was acutely aware of Blue's every move. I sensed her hesitation as she settled on the ground beside me, observing me with blue eyes that I could just picture in my head. If only for a moment, I imagined her as the white feline I'd found in the box on Main Street last summer, but that made everything all the more painful.

I fell asleep with the knowledge that she was close beside me, so close that the warmth from her body helped lull me to unconsciousness, but the distance between us had never felt so vast.

When I woke up, the pain in my arm had worsened to the point that I could hardly move it. I grumbled sleepily in annoyance, not quite remembering why my arm hurt so much, but silenced myself almost immediately when I noticed that Blue was missing.

She'd fallen asleep as close to me as I would allow, still not comfortable around her simply because she was now a human girl, not a cat. It wasn't exactly proper and made me feel awkward, almost as if I were betraying Hige by being so close to the girl he'd once loved and probably still did.

I pushed myself into a sitting position slowly, being careful not to jostle my arm in its sling, and looked around the clearing. Tsume, Kiba, and Hige were still sleeping soundly across from me, Cheza curled up with her head on Kiba's side, smiling slightly in her sleep. I watched the four of them for a few moments, blinking the sleep out of my eyes, before standing up and silently moving away, following Blue's scent.

It was strange, tracking a scent so efficiently while I was a human, even though I'd always had an exceptional sense of smell. My time as a wolf had only strengthened it, and I was as giddy as I could possibly be for a person that was still half-asleep, because I had all the aspects of a wolf even when I was a human. I was improving, and I couldn't help but feel proud of everything I'd accomplished.

When I found Blue, I was thankful she wasn't hauled up in a tree somewhere, which was what she'd usually done whenever something upset her when she was Snow. She was sitting on the edge of a cliff that fell away into dense forest below that seemed to stretch for miles, observing the fireflies that danced to and fro across the air in front of her.

I knew she heard my approach, yet she didn't turn. Once I was settled on the ground beside her, our legs dangling over the edge of the cliff, it was still quite some time before she dared open her mouth.

"How do you do it?"

I turned to regard her curiously, not liking the frown that was present on her face. If this was what came with Blue being a human, I wasn't sure I liked it. "What do you mean?"

"Being a human." She elaborated, lifting up one, tanned hand to inspect it critically, eyes filled with distaste. "You don't have claws to protect yourself. Your hearing is terrible. My body is so bulky I keep running into things."

I laughed, wincing as the action jostled my injured shoulder. "You'll get used to it. Being a human isn't all bad. Once you get more in tune with it, your hearing will come back and you'll be just as lithe as you were when you were a cat."

"I don't want to get used to it." Blue bit out, the hand that was still held up in the air lazily clenching into a tight fist. "I don't know what Cheza was thinking when she turned me into this… thing! I want my old body back, and I want it now."

I stayed silent for a moment, kicking my legs through the air slowly. "Being a different species isn't as terrible as you make it seem, Blue."

She tensed beside me, letting her hand fall limply to her side. "Why do you keep doing that?" Her voice was little above a whisper, but I could hear the frustration present in her tone. "You named me Snow, you know."

"I know." I replied, my throat tightening painfully. "But that was before – before I knew who you were."

"Tell me then!" Blue exploded, turning her head to look at me with sapphire eyes filled with anger. I'd never seen that look directed at me before. "Tell me who I am, because you sure as hell aren't treating me like I'm Snow anymore."

I looked away from the seething girl in front of me, unable to look her in the eyes. She really didn't understand what had happened to us, did she? She'd been so upset earlier that she'd practically ignored Kiba when he'd tried to explain it. Her denial was justified and completely reasonable to me, because I'd been through it before. Not knowing who you were was the worst possible thing that could ever happen to a person, in my opinion.

"You're Blue Yaiden." I said softly. "You were born a wolf-dog in your first life and served your master Quent Yaiden faithfully until the day you died."

"You really buy into that?" She demanded. "Being the reincarnation of a wolf who lived a long time ago isn't something I'm inclined to believe, Toboe. I'm surprised you do. You're always so skeptical."

"I know." I said again. "I was just as scared as you are, believe me, and I didn't know what to think when Kiba and the others first told me, but – " I paused, lifting my gaze to the moon. "I remember things from before. If it weren't for those few memories, I wouldn't be as inclined to believe that I had a whole different life before."

And as time went on, the divide that had always separated me from my past self was starting to deteriorate. The Toboe I'd met in Paradise wasn't so different from me at all. If anything, I just wasn't as innocent as I'd once been.

But that wasn't a bad thing. Toboe had even said so himself. I was older and wiser than before, far more educated in the ways of the world and how draining it could be, but I still saw the good in people. I was unwilling to accept that everyone was purely bad.

Every criminal had been a light-hearted child once. Every depressed individual had once braved everyday with a smile. I even knew that my father, the man who I'd never met that had left my mom alone and my sister so broken, had loved us at one point. I didn't know why he'd left, but I could only tell myself that it had been for a good reason. I refused to believe that a man would leave his loved ones so willingly.

I flinched when I felt a pressure on my cheek, and turned, watching Blue's expression as she brushed a tear from my face. "I hate it when you cry." She said softly, the pad on her thumb brushing over my cheekbone lightly. "I can never help you."

I shook my head slowly, not wanting her to pull her hand away just yet. Her tanned skin was surprisingly soft and warm, much like a newborn baby's. I supposed that was adequate enough, considering her body was just as new as any baby's.

"You have no idea." I murmured, offering her a small smile. "How do you think I managed to stay sane all this time?"

Blue didn't look convinced. "You've only known me for less than a year."

"You know that's not true." I couldn't help but say it aloud. The whole point of following Blue out here was to help her accept who she really was, right?

I didn't move as she jerked her hand away, looking so wounded that I almost regretted saying anything at all. "Toboe, I'm not her. I – I'm not Blue." She bit out. "Maybe I was, once, if what you all are saying is true, but I don't remember like you do. All I know is you, how you laugh, how you walk, how you talk, everything. But I feel like I don't know you at all when you say her name whenever you look at me."

"What do you want me to do?" I needed her to tell me if she wanted me to help her. It was obvious I was only upsetting her more, and that wasn't my intention. She might not have been exactly who I thought she was, but she was still important to me in any shape or form. I was willing to do whatever it took to help her come to terms with herself.

"Don't do anything!" I recoiled slightly as she leaned closer, blue eyes burning with intensity. She was clutching my wrist now, her grip so tight I was certain I'd have a bruise come morning. But it would disappear within a few hours either way, so I didn't try to escape her fierce grip. "Don't change a thing. Treat me like your best friend again, and please, whatever you do, do not call me Blue. My name is Snow Asher, and it always will be."

My throat felt impossibly tight, much like her grip on my wrist, and for a few moments I didn't know what to say. I wanted her to be Snow Asher more than anything, but that just wasn't the truth anymore.

She was Blue Yaiden, a wolf dog that for some reason had been reborn as a cat instead of a human like me, or a wolf like Kiba, Hige, and Tsume, and sooner or later, whenever she got her memory back, she was going to want to be Blue again.

I wanted to cut off all ties between my old pet and me now before it became too painful to bear farther down the road. But the pleading look in Blue's eyes was almost too much for me to handle, and I knew that all hopes I'd had of making her come to terms with her past had been in vain, because for now, the blue-eyed girl before me wasn't going to listen, and I had no desire to make her.

"Alright." I said eventually, my voice trembling with unshed tears. "I know you're Snow. I – I know."

And she let out a noise akin to a purr before releasing her hold on my wrist, instead wrapping her arms around my neck in a painful hug.

"Thank you." She breathed, and I had to bite my lip to keep from sobbing, because this whole thing was so frustrating. I was going to have to let go eventually, and she just kept making it harder. "Now stop crying. Mom would never forgive me if she knew I was allowing you to be so upset."

I forced out a laugh, pulling away to fix Blue – Snow – with a curious look. "You call her Mom, too?"

She nodded, smiling so sweetly I thought I might be sick. "Of course. She's been like a mother to me all this time. She used to yell at Kato whenever he was a jerk to me, you know. I think she views me as a second daughter, and that's why Airi hates me so much."

"She doesn't hate you. She's just… inept when it comes to expressing herself."

"She locked me in the laundry room while you were at school!"

I couldn't resist laughing, which earned me a small shove from the feline-turned-human, because I'd always known that Airi had been the one to do that, even if she'd never confessed to it directly.

Snow watched me curiously, her head tilted to the side as a large grin took purchase on her face. "You know, if one good thing has come from all of this, it's the fact that I can actually talk to you now, whether I'm human or not."

"Preferably not." I couldn't help but say. "I can't hold you like I used to when you're like this."

"Who says you can't?" Snow asked, arching a dark eyebrow suggestively. She laughed as my face heated up, adding, "You're still as girl-challenged as always, I see."

I sputtered indignantly as she continued to roar with laughter, holding her sides as if she thought they'd burst from the force. "Okay, not funny!" She giggled as I started to get up, grabbing my arm and tugging me back down to the ground. "I'm sorry, you're just so fun to tease."

"Yeah, I think I liked you better when you couldn't talk."

"Oh, please," she quipped with a roll of her eyes, "I've always been talking to you, you just couldn't understand me. I was complaining to you all day when Airi locked me in the laundry room, and you never told me to shut up once. Hiro on the other hand – "

She needn't say more, because I remembered that day probably as clearly as she did. But instead of feeling angry, I only felt sad. She seemed to notice, too, because all humor drained from her face, and she was just as serious as she'd been when I found her up here in an instant. "What's the matter?"

"I miss them." I said truthfully. "Even if they weren't exactly nice one hundred percent of the time, I still miss having them around."

Snow nodded, looking down at her hands. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss them, too. Airi especially. She sort of… I don't know. She changed when you left, Toboe. They all did."

This was news to me. "What do you mean?"

"Well, that first day when Mr. Yaiden came to the house," she began, no recollection in her voice as she spoke of her previous master, "she came into your room to look for a picture to give him. She grabbed a good one of us, one I was really fond of, and I hissed at her. She just sort of snapped and yelled at me that you were never coming back and – "

She trailed off briefly, a frown appearing on her face once more. "I felt bad, so I went down to her room to… I don't know, apologize in any way I knew how. I almost didn't go in, because she'd thrown a bottle of perfume at the wall, and it smelled so terrible in there. She was so upset, Toboe, you have no idea. I stayed with her, because you always seemed to calm down if you were upset whenever I was around, and she fell asleep. Up until the day I left to find you, she and I were never far apart."

This revelation had my mind reeling. Airi was never one to express how she felt. I could only blame her behavior on our father's departure and her dormant wolf instincts, but I still hated the idea that she had suffered from my absence. I hated the idea that any of my family members had suffered.

"And Kato and Hiro." Snow continued. "They were a sight for sore eyes, too. Kato was hardly ever away from Mom, and Hiro locked himself in his room for days on end. He was still sulking when I left, so I don't know if he got better. I felt so sorry for them all. Hiro blamed himself for your leaving. He thought it was because of what happened that night at the party."

"That is kind of why I left." I said quietly. "But not really. He shouldn't… it wasn't his fault."

Snow didn't say anything, which told me that she believed otherwise, but I didn't mind. My siblings didn't need to feel any guilt when it came to me. I wanted them to be happy knowing that I was all right and that I'd come home eventually, or at least I hoped I would. I desperately wanted them to know how much I missed them.

"I can only imagine how much worse they've gotten, though." Snow said with a small sigh.

"What do you mean?"

"When we thought you were… dead," Snow began thickly, "Tsume got his cell phone out and called Kiba's brother and told him that you'd died. Dante said that Airi was working for him, and that he would inform her as soon as possible."

I froze. Tsume had – Dante was going to –

"They think I'm dead?" I whispered.

"If Dante told Airi, then yes." Snow replied grimly.

I hadn't had any legitimate excuses to feel angry lately, but this was certainly as good a time as any to lose my temper. I was angry with Tsume for calling so soon after my supposed death, angry with Dante for daring to tell my sister something so devastating, and angry with myself for even allowing them to think I was anything but alive.

What must Airi be thinking, if Dante had indeed already told her? She'd already lost one family member, and everyone knew what that had done to her. I didn't even want to think about what would happen if she ended up telling the rest of our family.

Turning back to Snow, I said, "Do you know where Tsume keeps his cell phone?"

If there was one thing that pissed Airi off more than anything, it was being woken up out of her sleep by her damn phone. She most certainly wasn't a morning person, and she most definitely considered twelve at night "morning."

It was bad enough she'd been told that her baby brother had died that day, and when she went over to Olivia's house, she was so distraught that they'd hardly done anything but sit in her room and watch old movies that would make anyone cry, just so she could have an excuse to be a wimp.

She hadn't told Olivia about her brother, or the fact that she was a wolf. Her friend probably would've accused her of being high, anyway.

When the ringing of her cell phone woke her up, she laid still for a few moments, eyes still puffy and irritatingly crusty after all the hours she'd spent crying only a few hours before.

Olivia shifted in the bed beside her, mumbling something about alarm clocks in her sleep, and Airi reached blindly into the dark to grab the annoying piece of technology to tell whoever was calling to piss off before going back to bed. After all, tomorrow was already looking to be an eventful and stressful day. How did one break the news to their family that the precious baby had died? Airi sure as hell didn't know.

"If I don't know you, go fuck yourself. If I do, then someone better be dead if you're calling me at this hour." She grumbled sleepily into the phone, throwing her unoccupied arm across her face when she realized how close to home her second statement had hit.

"I'm calling because someone didn't die, Airi."

And Airi was certain she was still asleep, because the voice on the other end of the line was that of her deceased brother. Maybe she was finally losing her mind after all the stress she'd been under the past few weeks. That being said, she stayed silent for a few moments, feeling her eyelashes brush the skin on her forearm as she blinked rapidly, trying to wake herself up.

"If this is a dream – " She said into the dark.

She sat up in the bed as the voice laughed, and her heart stuttered when she realized she was indeed awake. It sounded forced and wet with tears, but that was fine with Airi, because if Toboe was laughing, it meant he was alive. "I promise you aren't dreaming."

"Toboe." She gasped, throwing a hand over her mouth as she glanced down at Olivia, who barely even flinched. "Toboe, you – what are – I thought – "

"Yeah, I know." He said slowly, sounding every bit as upset as Airi had been earlier. "Snow told me that Dante said… well, that I'd died. Everyone thought so, so don't feel too bad for falling for it."

Airi ignored the fact that Toboe said Snow had told him anything. "Oh, my God." She moaned, squeezing her eyes shut as a fresh wave of tears threatened to spill from her eyes. "Toboe, you're going to be the death of me. You have no idea how I – You need to come home."

Airi heard him sigh. "Airi, you know I can't."

"I don't know anything, and neither do you." She whispered fiercely, getting out of the bed to slip out of Olivia's room before she woke her friend up. "If you're getting shot at, then of course you should come home. I don't know what we would do if you died for real, Toboe."

There was silence on the other end as Airi shuffled down the stairs of her friend's house, moving through the darkened halls silently on her way to the back porch. It was a nice night out for a change, not a rain cloud in sight, and Airi settled herself on the porch swing to continue to talk with her brother.

It was such a relief just to hear his voice after weeks of not knowing how he was doing. He sounded fine. Upset and tired, sure, but fine.

"Dante told you about what I am, right?" He said eventually, voice hesitant and small. "What we are?"

Airi took a deep breath before nodding, even if he couldn't see it. "Yeah. He said that we're wolves."

Toboe didn't say anything in reply, and Airi slowly began to realize just what was probably running through his head. "Toboe, I don't give two shits if you're a wolf or not." She said fiercely. "You're still my brother, and I don't love you any less because of it. You don't owe those people at the WRA anything. So what if you tried to save the world before? You obviously succeeded, otherwise we wouldn't be here. Let someone else risk their lives this time. You've paid your debt to the world."

There was a long stretch of silence, during which Airi thought she heard a girl's voice sounding from wherever it was Toboe was calling her from, but then Toboe spoke. "I can't remember the last time I heard you say you loved me."

Airi closed her eyes, leaning forward on her elbows as she sat there in the dark, struggling to keep this conversation from going in a bad direction. Almost losing Toboe had really opened her eyes to how she'd been treating him all these years, and she really didn't want to think that if Toboe were to really die, he would be saying things like that about her.

"Well, I love you." She rasped. "And you're not allowed to die. So, if you won't come home now then just… survive until you can."

"I don't know if I'll ever come back, Airi."

"I know, baby brother. Don't come back if you don't want to. I'll try to keep the police off your tail." The task seemed impossible, even to her. "But at least call every now and then. Just do it at a more presentable hour, please."

Toboe laughed again, and this time, Airi smiled, because it sounded so genuine, just like the boy she remembered. "I promise, Airi. Oh, Snow says hi."

Airi blinked. "Snow? You mean, she really found you?"

"He found me, actually." The female voice sounded again, and Airi stared at her phone incredulously. "Hi, Airi. Just know that I miss you probably as much as you miss me."

"Toboe, who was that?"

"Um, it was Snow." Her brother said. "She's human now. It's kind of complicated, and I'd rather not try to explain it now. Listen, Airi, I have to go. The others are waking up, and they'll be pretty upset if they find out I called home again. I just wanted you to know that I wasn't dead."

"Well, I appreciate the notice." She replied, starting to feel like this was a dream once more. She was a wolf, Toboe was a wolf and alive, and Snow was now human. This day just kept getting better and better. "Stay safe, don't die, and save the world, okay?"

She could almost picture his smile in her head. "Oh, I will. Goodnight, Airi. I – I love you."

"Love you, too, Toboe." She replied, and the call ended almost as soon as it had begun.

She kept the device pressed to her ear for quite some time afterward, still unable to believe what had just happened. All those tears seemed wasted now that she knew her brother was alive, but she didn't regret feeling something.

If anything, she viewed his almost death as a blessing in disguise, even if she couldn't fully fathom just how much the whole thing had really changed her in the long run.

And somewhere in the back of her mind, Airi couldn't wait to go to work tomorrow, if only to rub it in Dante's face that he'd been wrong about something, as well as knee him in the groin for making her so upset in the first place.

Airi fell asleep on the porch swing with her phone still pressed to her ear and a smile plastered on her face.

A.N. Thanks to all who have reviewed and followed this story since it's early beginnings, and everyone else that joined along the way. Your input means so much, you have no idea.